Morven Summer Institute

The Morven Summer Institute is an innovative summer program hosted at Morven Farm, an emerging landscape for interdisciplinary learning for the University of Virginia. At the Morven Summer Institute, undergraduate and graduate students with interests in sustainability, design, food systems, and ecology have the opportunity to escape traditional confines of the classroom while working on projects with real-world applications.

The Morven Summer Institute 2015
Students participating in the 2015 Summer Institute can select one 3-credit course from either (or both) of the 10-day summer blocks (Block A: May 18-May 30 & Block B: June 1-June 13). In conjunction with time spent in the classroom at Morven, this interdisciplinary program features guest speakers, field trips, active group discussions, and hands-on projects to ignite creative collaboration among students and faculty. Students from all years, departments, and outside Universities are welcome to join the Morven community for this unique program.

Detailed information about course offerings for the 2015 Morven Summer Institute can also be seen on the Summer Programs website: Office of Summer Programs

For a glimpse at all you'll learn and do during the Morven Summer Institute experience, check out the MSI Blog!

To speak with a member of the Morven Programs staff, contact Cassidy Pillow, Morven Summer Institute Coordinator: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address); Whitney Farmer, Policy Coordinator: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

What is a sustainable quality of life or standard of living? Is it at the current level of consumption in industrialized countries like the US, in emerging economies like China, or in lower-income countries like Kenya? How should governments balance the need to create national income and provide for the human needs of their citizens against the desire to conserve natural resources and the environment for future generations? This course will analyze sustainability in the context of human needs and the UN’s Millennium Development Goals. The course will examine the methods and costs of satisfying these needs, including the externalities they incur and the tradeoffs involved between social benefit and environmental impact. Coverage of the Millennium Development Goals will emphasize the special needs of Sub-Saharan Africa, and prepare students completing the course for internships in the Young African Leaders Initiative to be held at Morven Farm beginning June 16th.

This class will cover the fundamental principles of agro-ecology, the science of using ecological theory to improve agricultural practice. We will begin with the basics of plant-crop science and integrate the fundamental biology of crops into an ecological view of growth and production. Specific topics we will cover include, but are not limited to, mono- vs. poly-culture approaches, drought stress, and disease ecology. The class will look in some detail at the ecological consequences of traditional and modern breeding approaches. We will also examine the roles of economic and sociocultural factors in designing ecologically aware agricultural systems. Students should, but are not required to, have Introductory Biology and Introductory Chemistry. The course will be international in scope but will focus on Central Virginia for field projects.

Where do ideas of nature come from, and what cultural and political consequences do they carry? In an era of rapid human expansion and uncertain ecological change, cultures everywhere are reexamining their basic orientations to their environments. What stories and values shape the patterns of everyday ecological life? Are they still good ones, or must agents develop new moral resources to meet new moral problems? This course interprets humanity’s changing ecological relationships through religious and philosophical traditions. It takes up ethical questions presented by environmental problems, introduces frameworks for making sense of them, and examines the symbols and narratives that shape imaginations of nature. In lecture and in online discussion sections, we take up relations of belief and behavior in practical problems like climate change and food choices, and we consider their implications for personal commitments and public goals.

This course explores the politics of food and food systems, with a focus on farmers markets. What role do farmers markets play in America’s food system? What legislation and regulation at the federal and state levels affects how farmers markets carry out these roles? Students will gain practical experience in applied data gathering and analysis, building a set of skills that can be applied in studying farmers markets. A roster of guest lecturers, developed in collaboration with the national Farmers Market Coalition, will include researchers, policy makers, farmers market managers, and farmers. Students who take this course will be eligible for a research internship in a Virginia farmers market.